Vision Fast Training

We offer both two week and month long training sessions for vision fast guides. In addition, we offer related training in the Four Shields and in Mirroring & Storytelling.

Intensives are designed for those who seek training and inspiration in the ever-widening subject matter of wilderness-oriented experience/therapy. They involve the whole person: body, soul, mind, and spirit, and are not for the faint-of-heart. Each course requires a unique commitment. Four Shields and Mirroring courses have been practical training at Lost Borders for many years.

Two Week Training

Training specific to the wilderness passage rite known as the vision fast. Full participation in the severance, threshold and incorporation phases while maintaining a training perspective. Recommended: that trainees have already fasted alone for at least three days in a wilderness place. An intense training exercise, punctuated by four days and nights of integration under the wind and stars.

Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature

Telling one’s own story is an ancient art. Nowadays, we have forgotten how to listen and how to tell. Yet the very survival of our species depends on our ability to communicate with each other in such ways as to be mutually enriched by the telling and the listening. If we cannot tell with expression, our life is mute. If we cannot listen like a mirror, we cannot reflect back the wholeness of the four shields -- the body, soul, mind and spirit of the teller.

Month Long Training

For more than thirty-five years, the School of Lost Borders has offered a unique training for students, therapists, teachers, caregivers, and guides interested in deepening their understanding of rites of passage and initiatory ecotherapies. While its focus is wilderness rites of passage, this training has also supported professionals in many areas, including those who work primarily in offices, classrooms, and other “front-country” venues. Through this training, the School has contributed to the fields of nature-based personal growth, wilderness therapy, and ecopsychology.